Time for Canadians to Call their MP's, Sentences-Drugs-Laundering, Private Jets, Taxes-Fees-Mismanagement & Political Freedom

In order for evil to triumph, it is only necessary for good men to do nothing.

It is time for Canadians to call their MP's and get them to provide the RCMP with the proper resources, instead of playing hide and seek with their funding. The RCMP and Crosn Prosecutors are underfunded and sentences are basically traffic tickets -- while billions are laundered.

Pot policy is smoke and mirrors March 13, 2005, Lorrie Goldstein, Toronto Sun

REMEMBER WHEN Bill Clinton said he smoked marijuana but didn't inhale?

As laughable as his explanation was, Prime Minister Paul Martin's policies on marijuana are even less credible.

Politically, Martin is trying to inhale and exhale all at once.

[. . . . ] While I don't favour either decriminalizing or legalizing marijuana, the choice the Liberals have made -- decriminalization -- is the worst of the available options, because it means the police will still have to divert scarce resources to catching casual users, as opposed to concentrating on big growers.

Finally, the Liberals haven't even addressed the fact that no matter what Canada does, grow-ops will continue to be hugely attractive to criminals here because of the big profits to be made smuggling pot into the U.S., which has no intention of easing its pot laws. The Grits may not like the Americans, but ignoring them on this makes you wonder what they're smoking. [. . . . ]

GOMERY GIVES MORE THAN GOOD CLIP -- The Gazette’s WILLIAM MARSDEN reports: via Norman's Spectator

[. . . . ] “The contrast couldn't be more grotesque - especially when Justice John Gomery adjourned the hearings Thursday out of respect for the dead police officers.

But set the killings of these young men against the Gomery commission and they become a dark reminder of the price citizens often pay for government profligacy.

Because while the federal government was spending money on expressions of our national image - flags and logos - it was slashing the budgets of institutions like the RCMP, forcing them to reduce staff, close detachments and curtail investigations. Connections seemed to have had a lot to do with why admen like Lafleur flourished. The inquiry has heard that the federal government never asked advertising agencies to make competing proposals so it could pick and choose and get the best campaign for its loonie. Instead, it was a feeding frenzy with well-known Liberal supporters first at the trough. [. . . . ]

More taxes and fees + less service = mismanagement

Grits don't get it. It's our money Toronto Sun Editorial, Mar. 13, 05

[. . . . ] The problem with all these answers is that they wrongly suggest two things.

First, that the more money you throw at a problem, or the more you have to throw at it, the more likely it is that it will be fixed.

Second, that there are three separate groups of taxpayers in Canada -- municipal, provincial and federal -- rather than one taxpayer with three pockets which are constantly being picked by three levels of government. [. . . . ]

Drug sentences are going to pot!
Mar. 12, 05, Mindelle Jacobs, Edmonton Sun, via Jack's Newswatch

[. . . . ] Take a guess what the average sentence length is for pot production. Five years? Two years? Not even close.

According to a seven-year study of B.C. marijuana cultivation released yesterday, the average sentence for those who were actually sent to prison was 4.9 months.

Not only that but there seems to be no relation between the length of prison sentence and a convict's previous drug conviction, notes the report by the University College of the Fraser Valley. [. . . . ]

Multi-thousand-plant operations are no longer uncommon, an RCMP drug report noted last year. Yes, these are heady days for pot growers.

And they'll continue basking in their millions, laughing at us poor working stiffs, until Ottawa legalizes marijuana.

Legalizing? With the current pot potency which is great bargaining power when drug dealers trade in the US to get cocaine?




2 deported in style -- PRIVATE JETS RENTED TO TRANSPORT HIGH-RISK SUSPECTS Tom Godfrey, Toronto Sun, Mar. 13, 05

This is one of those cases where you should either read the fine print or read to the end, in this case the end.

[. . . . ] AL-QAIDA LINK

Customs officers said the Tunisian, who was part of a Montreal student exchange program, never attended classes and was sought on a 2002 warrant for not showing up for his refugee hearing.

U.S. police and immigration allege some of the students are linked to al-Qaida fugitives Al Rauf Bin Al Habib Bin Yousef Al-Jiddi, 39, and Faker Boussora, 40, who are sought worldwide for being on Osama bin Laden's payroll.

Agents said the Israeli deportee had ties to the Hezbollah. [. . . . ]

In the Way of Political Freedom

In the Way of Political Freedom -- Uncommon advocates and adversaries in an undecided struggle Bruce S. Thornton, Private Papers, Mar. 13, 05 on Victor Davis Hanson's website.

Those of us who enjoy political freedom often take it for granted, considering it a sort of natural resource that can be simply handed over to those peoples who lack it. But [. . . . ]

[. . . . ] The battle against Islamist terrorism, then, will require even more commitment over a longer span of time than the struggle against Soviet communism did. Time will tell whether our democratic politics is compatible
with such a lengthy commitment.

Now is not the time to celebrate, then. The struggle has just begun, and the years ahead will be marked by setbacks, mistakes, and at times bloody chaos. Whether we will succeed or not—that is, whether freedom wins out or not—is still an open question, as it has always been.